Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism: Dubrovnik to Venice luxury cruise

Environment

The management and crew of these vessels are dedicated to sustainable tourism in Croatia and are passionate about raising awareness of environmental, economic and sustainable tourism policies in Croatia. They believe the promotion of environmental awareness in the region will have a prolonged and positive impact on the livelihoods of the local people and maintain Croatia as a sustainable tourism destination for future generations.

The vessels that we use are all built in Croatia, specifically for use in these waters. This ensures that the most appropriate local resources are used wherever possible, and that the vessels are all built to comply and exceed local environmental and sustainability regulations.

By using small ships to visit and stay in some of the smaller ports and villages, we are providing an opportunity for a boost to tourism without the need for potentially unwanted and inappropriate new hotels to be built, and without increasing road traffic.

The Venetian lagoon is a very sensitive area and some Venetians believe that the increasing cruise traffic is harming the local environment. For this part of the voyage we switch to travel by road in a midi bus. Modern buses are very efficient with fuel usage and by having a small to medium size group we can still visit sensitive areas without swamping the neighbourhood.

Community

Vast floating blocks of flats, otherwise known as cruise ships, arrive direct from Venice and spill their loads onto the Dubrovnik dock where they are met by a huge fleet of buses that whisk them for a couple of hours in the beautiful city. These monoliths cruise past one of Europe's most beautiful coastlines with barely a second glance, and without a thought to the places they are missing.

Our vessel, on the other hand, stops at many small ports and towns where we can fully enjoy some of the very best that Croatia has to offer. The money that we will spend in many of these smaller communities will help to preserve the fantastic heritage of these antique coastline.

Our visits to Mljet National Park & The Benedictine monastery on St Mary Isle will help preserve them by putting a little funding directly into their coffers. Likewise our visits to Plitvice Lakes National Park and beautiful Postojna Cave in Slovenia add a little to the local coffers.

Our vessels are captained and crewed by Croatians, and most of the produce served on board in sourced locally, sometimes from the crew’s family members.